Biological Control in Sugarcane

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Introduction
❑ Sugarcane is attacked by twelve major pests and five major diseases.
❑ In India yield loss due to pests and diseases infestation in sugarcane crop is 18-20 % and 15-16 % respectively.
❑ There are three principles of pest and diseases control;

➢ Mechanical or Cultural
➢ Chemical
➢ Biological

❑ Controlling the pests and diseases through chemical mean has environmental and health hazards. Hence an integrated
approach for pests and diseases control have been adopted in many sugar factories.

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What is Biological Control

❑ Biological control can be defined as the use of an organism to reduce the population density of another organism.
Natural biological control ensures that the Earth is ‘green’ and that plants can produce sufficient biomass to sustain
other forms of life. Without biological control, the production of energy by plants would be a small fraction of
current levels. Natural biological control of pest organisms has occurred since the evolution of the first ecosystem
some 500 million years ago, and continues to the present day across 55.5 billion hectares of the world’s terrestrial
ecosystems and without human intervention.

❑ There are three main technique of biological control; Classical, Augmentative and Conservation.

❑ Currently commercially available for augmentative forms of biological control are predators, parasitoids and
pathogens.

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Augmentative Forms of Biological Control
➢ Predators
Predators catch and eat their prey. Some common predatory arthropods include Beetles, Flies, Bugs and Spiders.
➢ Parasitoids

Parasitoids lay their eggs on or in the body of an insect host, which is then used as a food for developing larvae. The

host is ultimately killed. Most insect parasitoids are wasps or flies, and many have a very narrow host range like

Trichogramma chilonis & japonicum (Egg parasitoids) and Tetrastichus howardi (Larval parasitoid).
➢ Pathogens

Pathogenic micro-organisms include bacteria, fungi, and viruses. They kill or debilitate their host and are relatively

host-specific. Various microbial insect diseases occur naturally, but may also be used as biological pesticides like

Beauveria bassiana, Metarhizium anisopliae, Trichoderma viride & harzianum (Fungi) and Pseudomonas

fluorescens (Bacteria).

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Mode of Action of Bio-control Agents
❖ Competition: Microorganism competes for space, minerals and organic nutrients to proliferate and survive in their
natural habitats.
❖ Antibiosis: It occurs when the pathogen is inhibited or killed by metabolic products of the antagonists. The
products include the lyric agents, enzymes, volatile compounds and other toxic substances.
❖ Mycoparasitism / Hyperparasitism: Mycoparasitism or hyperparasitism occurs when the antagonist invades the
pathogens by secreting enzymes such as chitinases, celluloses, glucanases and other lytic enzymes. Mycoparasitism
is the phenomenon of one fungus being parasitic on another fungus.
❖ Lytic enzymes: Lysis is the complete or partial destruction of a cell by enzymes.
❖ Hydrogen cyanide: Many rhizobacteria produce hydrogen cyanide and this has been shown to play direct as well
as indirect role in biological control of plant diseases and increasing the yields. The florescent pseudomonas
themselves produce HCN andare able to suppress the pathogens.
❖ Induced Systemic Resistance (ISR): ISR is the ability of an agent (a fungus, bacteria, virus, chemical etc.) to induce
plant defense mechanisms that lead to systemic resistance to a number of pathogens.
❖ Plant growth promotion: Biocontrol agents also produce growth hormones like, Auxins, Cytokinin, Gibberellins etc.

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Trichogramma Working Mechanism

Release schedule I II III IV V VI

Release rate per acre (cc) 1 1 1 1 1 1

Release rate per hectare (cc) 2.5 2.5 2.5 2.5 2.5 2.5

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Tetrastichus Working Mechanism

Release schedule 1st 2nd 3rd

Release rate per acre (Pkt) 4 3 3

Release rate per hectare (pkt) 10 8 8

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Mode of Action of Beauveria

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Mode of Action of Beauveria

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Mode of Action of Trichoderma

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Mode of Action of PSB

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Need for Biological Control

▪ Insects and pests are developing resistance against insecticides.

▪ To reduce use of toxic chemicals.

▪ To safe soil, water and air from pollution.

▪ To balance the ecosystem.

▪ In order to meet the needs of the food grain for growing population.

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Advantages of Biological Control
(1) Biological control is less costly and cheaper than any other methods.
(2) Biocontrol agents give protection to the crop throughout the crop period.
(3) They do not cause toxicity to the plants.
(4) Application of biocontrol agents is safer to the environment and to the person who applies them.
(5) They multiply easily in the soil and leave no residual problem.
(6) Biocontrol agents not only control the disease but also enhance the root and plant growth by way of encouraging the
beneficial soil micro flora. It increases the crop yield also.
(7) Biocontrol agents are very easy to handle and apply to the target.
(8) Biocontrol agent can be combined with bio-fertilizers.
(9) They are easy to manufacture.
(10) It is harmless to human beings and animals (Environmentally safe).

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Limitation of Biological Control

1) The main limitation of biological control is that it is slower to suppress pest populations than most
pesticides as parasitized organisms may take several days to die; and also, predators require a period of
time to establish an economic level of pest suppression.
2) It is now widely acknowledged that successful biological control depends on extensive preliminary
studies to gain a comprehensive understanding of the biology and ecology of the pest and natural
enemy complex, and of the environments from which they originate and have subsequently colonized,
or into which they will be released.
3) Growers are used to easy applications of pesticides
4) Rearing of alternative host for mass multiplication
5) Lack of awareness
6) Mind set

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Bio-agents And Targeted Insects/Pests And Diseases
Name of Bio-agents Catagories Nature of Bio-agent Image Targeted Insect/pest/Diseases Crop Dose/Ha
Sugarcane Boreres Sugarcane
Tomato Fruit Borer Totato
Trichogramma chilonis Cotton bollworm Cotton
Parasitoids Eggs Parasitoids Maize stem borer Maize 50000 Eggs
Citrus leaf eating caterpillar Citrus
Sugarcane top borer Sugarcane
Trichogramma japonicum
Paddy stem borer Paddy
Gram pod borer Gram
Sorghum/Maize stem borer Sorgham/ Maize
Tetrastichus howardi Parasitoids Pupal Parasitoids 4000 Adults
Diamond back moth Cabbage
Sugarcane Boreres Sugarcane

Beauveria bassiana Fungi Entomopathogen White Grub, Termite, Root Borer All Fields Crop 5 Kg/Ha

Metarhizium anisopliae Fungi Entomopathogen Several Insects All Fields Crop 5 Kg/Ha

Trichoderma viride Fungi Fungal Pathogen

Soil-borne plant pathogens like

Trichoderma harzianum Fungi Fungal Pathogen Rhizoctonia, Phythium,
All Fields Crop 10 Kg/Ha
Phytophthora, Scleroterium,
Fusarium etc.

Trichoderma virens Fungi Fungal Pathogen

Pseudomonas fluorescens Bacteria Fungal Pathogen All fungal diseases All Fields Crop 10 Kg/Ha

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Trichocard (Trichogramma sp)

We have large scale production of two species:

• Trichogramma chilonis (all type of sugarcane borers)
• Trichogramma japonicum (specially for top borer)

Tricho-card:
• It is piece of card (size 10X10 cm) with pasting of 20-22 thousands eggs of Corcyra
parasitized by Trichogramma.

• These eggs hatch in the field and emerged Trichogramma parasitizes borer’s eggs.
• Trichogramma emerged from parasitized eggs in place of borers.
• Trichogramma is an egg parasite of sugarcane borers.
• Dose per ha – 2.5 cards in 15 days interval 6 times.
Trichocard

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Production of Trichogramma Egg Card

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Tetra-PKT (Tetrastichus howardi)

Tetrastichus:
• Tetrastichus howardi is parasitic non stinging wasp that are endoparasitoids of insect
pupae (Pupal parasitoid).
• Tetrastichus is a genus of hymenopteran insects of the family Eulophidae.

Tetra-pkt
• It is small polythene pkt containing around 150-200 adults of Tetrastichus.
• Tetrastichus is natural pupal parasite of sugarcane borers.
• Dose per ha- 3-4 pkts in 30 days interval 3 times.

Tetrapacket

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Production of Tetrastichus

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Trichoderma

❑ A genus of fungi that is present in all soils

❑ Effective biological means for red rot and wilt control

❑ It is one of the best decomposers.

❑ Helps in uptake of nutrients.

❑ It also help bio-degradation of certain group of chemicals

❑ Dose per ha- 10 Kg along with 200 Kg compost.

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Beauveria + Metarhyziuma

Beauveria Bassiana
▪ A fungus which causes a disease known as the white muscadine
disease in insects.
▪ Spores of this fungus come in contact with the cuticle (skin) of
susceptible insects, they germinate and grow directly through the
cuticle to the inner body of their host.

Metarhizium anisopliae
▪ A fungus that grows naturally in soils
▪ Causes green muscadine disease in various insects by acting as a
parasite and belongs to the entomopathogenic fungi.

Benefits
• Both fungi give good control of Termites, White grub and Root
borer.
• Dose per ha- 5 kg along with 200 kg of compost.

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Production process of Trichoderma and
Beauveria+Metarhizium

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Bio-fertilizers

❑ Phosphorus Solublizing Bacteria (PSB)

• Phosphorus is immobile in soil. PSB solublizer phosphorus and make it available to plants.
• It induces resistance in sugarcane crop against red rot.
• Dose per ha. 10 Kg along with 200 Kg compost.

❑ Azotobacter
• It fixes atmospheric nitrogen (which is unavailable to the plant).
• And makes it available to plants.
• Approximately 20 kg per hectare per year nitrogen is fixed by
• this bacterium.
• Dose per ha- 10 kg along with 200 Kg of compost.

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Strength and Challenges
Strength
❑ Optimum capacity utilization
❑ Utilization of waste materials-
• Use of decomposed press mud as inert matter
• Utilization of waste maize from Corcyra rearing for sub-culturing

Challenges
❑ Host availability of Tetrastichus
❑ License for bio pesticides and bio-fertilizers
❑ Awareness

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 Thanks

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